JOB DESCRIPTION:
NORC at the University of Chicago seeks a qualified Senior Data Scientist to manage claims analytics related to Medicare, Medicaid, and private plans and lead quantitative analyses supporting NORC’s health care evaluations. NORC is seeking an experienced candidate with deep methodological and analytic expertise in claims analytics.
NORC recognizes that talented and skilled researchers live throughout the U.S. and actively supports remote work arrangements.
As a condition of employment, all NORC employees and contractors including those working remotely – must be fully vaccinated (as defined by current CDC guidance) against COVID-19.
DEPARTMENT: HEALTH CARE EVALUATION
NORC’s expertise and ongoing work in health care delivery and financing including access to insurance, payment and delivery-system reform, benefit design, and quality measurement advance stakeholders‘ understanding of policies and programs, facilitate implementation, and contribute to important improvements in cost and quality.
NORC’s expert staff has extensive knowledge of all aspects of health care delivery, from private marketplaces and employer-sponsored insurance to Medicare and Medicaid; from large health care systems to small clinics; and from the needs of children to those of older adults, people with disabilities, and ethnic and racial minorities. Our expert team includes social scientists that acquire, collect, and analyze data from health care organizations and patients; evaluators; health services researchers; health-policy analysts; and professionals with first-hand experience running and supporting health care programs.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
Work with terabytes of healthcare claims and administrative data, and create analytic data products therefrom to support various healthcare research and technical assistance projects.
Implement specifications for rigorous study designs, and measures of performance such as cost and quality, to evaluate the impact of healthcare programs and policies.
Participate in and contribute to internal discussions and strategic thinking concerning future research opportunities and the implications of ongoing policy-making for NORC.
Manage contracts and work closely with clients to ensure that contractual requirements (deliverables and timelines) and client expectations are met using the highest standards of quality and collegiality.
Manage multiple project teams of senior, mid-level, and junior staff, and bring in experts as needed, to meet client expectations and contractual requirements.
Monitor and oversee the financial and administrative aspects of ongoing projects.
REQUIRED SKILLS:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or higher in social sciences, math, statistics, or computer science or a related field.
9+ years of SAS programming experience in an academic or professional environment.
Experience working with Medicare, Medicaid and private health plan claims and encounter data both through federal assets like MSIS, AlphaMax and working directly with states and plans.
Familiarity with Center of Medicare & Medicaid Services data environments including CCW VRDC, Integrated Data Repository, and Mainframe.
Knowledge of claims analytics methodologies including attribution, risk adjustment, and episode grouping.
Experience with creating common health care quality measures used by CMS from raw claims.
Knowledge of the Medicare and/or Medicaid programs, including delivery system reform, provider payment, access to care, and beneficiary experience.
Experience with conducting policy analysis in a government or professional services environment.
Excellent oral and written communication skills and aptitude in leading and working with project teams, coordinating multiple projects (including those run by others within NORC).
PREFERRED SKILLS:
Experience with big data technologies such as Hadoop, Spark, Vertica, or multithread data management technologies.
Experience with estimating project and proposal costs and managing project budgets.
Experience working for the federal government or a federal contractor, ideally with work focusing on the Medicare and/or Medicaid program.
WHAT WE DO:
NORC at the University of Chicago is an objective, non-partisan research institution that delivers reliable data and rigorous analysis to guide critical programmatic, business, and policy decisions. Since 1941, our teams have conducted groundbreaking studies, created and applied innovative methods and tools, and advanced principles of scientific integrity and collaboration. Today, government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world partner with us to transform increasingly complex information into useful knowledge.
We provide comprehensive and integrated services that span the research cycle, and offer solutions that anticipate and address critical needs in research and data science. We approach all work with deep technical expertise, a spirit of collaboration, and a commitment to scientific integrity.
WHO WE ARE:
For over 75 years, NORC has evolved in many ways, moving the needle with research methods, technical applications and groundbreaking research findings. But our tradition of excellence, passion for innovation, and commitment to collegiality have remained constant components of who we are as a brand, and who each of us is as a member of the NORC team. With world-class benefits, a business casual environment, and an emphasis on continuous learning, NORC is a place where people join for the stellar research and analysis work for which we’re known, and stay for the relationships they form with their colleagues who take pride in the impact their work is making on a global scale.
EEO STATEMENT:
NORC is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer that values and actively seeks diversity in the workforce. NORC evaluates qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other legally- protected characteristics.
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